Our last "hard" day of riding started off with heavy fog and 20 miles of climbing. We were on Route 154 and there was literally no shoulder. Cars were zooming by at 60-65 and I was pretty freaked out. Last night at our daily briefing they said they were going to try to find a way around 154 - but were unsuccessful in re-routing us.
Had they told us that the the road was as dangerous as it was - I would have asked to ride in the van. I kept looking for the support van but it did not pass me until mile 15 (and by that time I was off Route 154). Just was not safe.
When we exited Route 154 we got on Stagecoach Rd. This originally was the main road between Solvang and Santa Barbara. Not really sure how the heck horses ever pulled a stagecoach up this hill. About 1/2 way up I was able to take a photo of the bridge on the road they built to "replace" the stagecoach trail.
As we climbed I was able to get under the bridge and take a shot directly underneath. Should give you a feel for how high it was above me. Just after the bridge there are a bunch of white crosses. I asked the tour director what they were for and he said "jumpers". It appears the bridge is a popular place to kill yourself. I think the Golden Gate is a better place to do it - much softer landing.
We kept climbing until we were just above the bridge. If you look in the second photo you can see the road we climbed up (just below the left side of the bridge) to get to this point. Thank god this is supposedly our last big hill of the ride!
The downhill was pretty cool. When we started down we got our first view of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean. It was pretty hazy so my pictures are not very clear..
We passed through Santa Barbara and then got onto a bike path that took us parallel to Route 101 heading to Ventura. All along the road there are RV's. Must have been at least two miles maybe three miles of RV's jammed together on the road. And these were not your "cheap" RV's. Big bucks.
We rode right next to the ocean and saw surfers and bathers. Hard to believe it is October.
The ride ended in Oxnard. We did not get to ride next to the Ocean in Oxnard as it appears to have a lot of oil facilities along the water. The town itself is pretty rough as well. The hotel is fine but I doubt I would say to Cathryn. "Hey, I have an idea - let's go to Oxnard for the weekend".
Two more days of riding. Tomorrow we pass Venice Beach and end up in Marina Del Ray. Weather forecaster is calling for rain which will be a bummer as there is nothing like people watching in Venice.
No comments:
Post a Comment